Watching the world of east London politics

Tower Hamlets celebrity cash outrage

Tower Hamlets Council has finally complied with the Government’s demands to publish details of all its payments of more than £500 in the current financial year. You can look for yourself here if you know how to convert raw data into Excel spreadsheets (predictably, the council has made it as difficult as possible by dumping the data in a fairly difficult format to read.)

I’ve not had a chance to have a proper look yet (I can’t wait…), but the Tories are definitely quick out of the traps. For example, group leader Peter Golds has already asked chief executive Kevan Collins why his office paid £900 to the Tower Hamlets Labour party on December 9 for “venue hire”.

And one of his new councillors, Zara Davis, who represents Millwall, has just issued a quiet extraordinary press release. Thanks to a brilliant Freedom of Information request, we learn that one of Britain’s poorest boroughs has been shelling out more than £40,000 booking celebrities to appear at various staff events, including pat-on-the-back award ceremonies.

The payments include £13,000 to Barbara Windsor for her appearance at the 2008 staff awards event, £8,050 to Shappi Khorsandi for attending the 2009 staff awards event, £7,500 to Tanni Grey-Thompson and £4,000 to Esther Rantzen.

After exposing these figures, Cllr Zara Davis commented:

“This is an absolute outrage. Taxpayers will be horrified that Tower Hamlets Council has blown tens of thousands of pounds on celebrities.

“What is even more distressing is that whilst the council fritters away money, Tower Hamlets remains one of the most deprived boroughs in the country. This area lags behind the rest of London, let alone the rest of England when it comes to education, health, employment and housing. The very fact that the council would blow its money on celebrities rather than invest in vital services just beggars belief.

“The purpose of a council is to deliver the services that matter to residents, and to provide good value for money. Tower Hamlets has failed miserably on both of these counts.”

The full details are as follows:

DATE

CELEBRITY

EVENT

FEE

Jul-05

Athlete – Kris Akabusi

Support Staff Conference

£3,000

Nov-06

Swimmer – Sharron Davis

Annual Staff Awards

£6,000

Nov-07

Athlete – Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson

Annual Staff Awards

£7,500

Nov-08

Actor – Barbara Windsor

Annual Staff Awards

£13,000

Jun-09

Businesswoman – Camila Batmanghelidjh

Workforce Development Conference

£1,000

Nov-09

Comedian – Shappi Khorsandi

Annual Staff Awards

£8,050

Jun-10

Esther Rantzen

Children’s Workforce Development Conference

£4,000

In my last post here on council spending, Labour questioned Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s proposal to plough an emergency transitional grant from Eric Pickles’s department into a “slush fund” reserve. I would imagine that when Big Eric hears how Tower Hamlets has been spending our cash, he’ll do a Big Daddy drop.

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22 Responses

You can download csv files (comma separated values), save as a csv file in file of your choice on your hard drive and then “save as” an excel file. It’s not difficult. It’s also not unusual since not everybody uses Excel.

Spotted a good one – obviously the Council has “money to burn” judging by the £40,000 spent on what I assume are fireworks.

See Communities, Localities & Culture Directorate payments to suppliers for December 2010 / payment of £40,000 to WTP PYROTECHNICS LTD on 3rd December (Arts/Park events). I wonder if local people would enjoy the fireworks as much if they knew this is what it cost?

We know from a previous FOI request that in 2008/9 Paradise Gardens festival cost £269,000 and the annual Fireworks display cost £106,000 I have yet to do a FOI request for last years figures but would be surprised if they were lower.

This was offset by £217,000 raised from events in 2009 the one good thing from Events Summer from hell suffered by local residents last year is that it should have raised more money although HMV’s published A/c shows them loosing a million on High Voltage.

I’ve always maintained it’s not what the numbers that say which is interesting. Looking a bit harder and spotting which numbers are missing is also very illuminating. Take a look at the Directorates and the Divisions and then spot the absences!

Looks to me like a failure by Tower Hamlets Council to comply with this new requirement for public accessibility to data. Or maybe just a failure of their QA?

Aw Come on Ted not more barrel scraping this is over a period of the past 6 years!!
You can see that it was just a once a year thing
and with the first recorded one from Jul 2005 when they had the Athlete Kris Akabusiat the Staff Conference and paid him £3,000 surely this was all to do with staff morale and the upcoming Olympics the same as from Nov 06 with the great Swimmer Sharron Davis at the yearly Staff Awards £6,000 and again from Nov-07 Athlete to Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson at the yearly Staff Awards £7,500
But I am at a loss though as to why in Nov 08 they had the actress Barbara Windsor and she received £13,000 she sounds an expensive act I am sure a much cheaper line of entertainment could have been used but it was a one off
I do not feel that Jun-09 Businesswoman Camila Batmanghelidjh for just £1.000 was not an excess if she was used productively

Nov-09 Comedian – Shappi Khorsandi Annual Staff Awards £8,050
its a shame that the electorate are not invited to these events but sadly we no longer have a venue big enough that we still own in Tower Hamlets because the madness of past administrations in giving them away for peanuts

I am in two minds about this public money being spent on one hand its a bit of a waste – but on the other its only around once a year and it suppose to build staff morale ( oh my goodness I sound just like a Lib Dem here sitting on the fence) ha ha

But you know Archent always go to town for there staff awards so its good to appreciate good staff I suppose and I am certain the majority of the staff live in Tower Hamlets and pay there taxes and council tax.

But still the Lib thing that I am still in two mind if a celebrity should be used for such events as the recognition of doing good work I suppose should be enough for staff but then if all staff were invited then it is not really a big problem?

But at the end of the day the Mayor has only been there since the end of October so it wasn’t on his watch so to speak

Ted you’re not that bad after all….why did the council pay Labour £900 for room hire on dec 9 is a very serious matter. I will be putting an FOI to find out. In the meantime can Joshu Peck or Racheal Saunders please answer why you used our public money for your party event at the Town Hall when other parties like conservatives could not dream of accessing such resources.

All payments by the Council which do not comply with proper council and legal processes are “ultra vires” and hence the PERSONAL financial liability of the Councillors who make the decision.

Incompetent and negligent Councillors around the UK have been personally surcharged in the past when taking decisions in an inappropriate fashion. I don’t recall there being any limit on the ceiling of a surcharge.

There are proper ways of terminating contracts and improper ways. In the current climate where every penny counts I think the chances of “forcing” ANYBODY out of the Council through “pay-offs” is going to be very difficult if not impossible to account for in terms of fiduciary duty i.e. the best and proper use of our money.

It seems this entire blog is now being run by ‘you couldn’t make it up’! aka Peter Golds. Ted, maybe it’s time that you put a cap on the limit of comments that can be made by one person and find ways to encourage wider participation.

In regards to the council’s published list of monthly expenditure, I agree with the comments that we should not be wasting tax payers money on celebrities, what purpose the celebs have served and how it was justified is just beyond me. However what would really be interesting is if they also published addresses of the suppliers and you will soon get to see the amount of money leaving this borough.

Nope I’m not Peter Golds either – although I guess he’d be very amused by the fact you think I’m him. Continue with the guessing……

I’m also not making anything up.

I do however have certain specific interests and for anybody who cares to look through my comments and which posts I comment on you’ll see that a common theme is about the Council being accountable to the people.

What’s so odd about that? What’s wrong with that?

It’s a joy to be able to have a blog to comment on which does take that issue seriously!

What is it with people that they think this blog is some form of forum which is accountable to them?

So far as I’m aware this is an independent blog written in a private capacity by an individual living in Tower Hamlets. It’s not a forum. It’s not a newspaper. Ted writes about Tower Hamlets and some of its personalities and the shenanigans which occur as he sees it. He allows comments from anybody so long as they are legal and not offensive.

I’m happy with that – why aren’t you?

There’s nothing to stop people going off and creating their own blogs if they want to have more of a voice or an alternative perspective on the “goings on” in Tower Hamlets.

I personally find it amazing that Hackney is chockfull of blogs by private individuals and yet here in Tower Hamlets there are very few. Why is that?

Are you familiar with the Members Allowance Scheme? Members filling specific roles get paid what the Council decided they should be paid. It’s not linked to their political party, it’s linked to the job they do.

Of course there are other members who in the past have been happy to accept the allowance for the job (eg Chairs of Committees) and done very little in return. Now that’s what I call an outrage!